Words from the 2000s High School Vocabulary

Oh, to have grown up in the 2000s… the era when cell phones were used for calls, text messages, and showing off musical ringtones; before smartphones dominated our days and social media poisoned our minds. It was the turning point of simple webpage platforms we can’t remember, to MySpace and onto Facebook. These were the days we transitioned from MSN and web-camming people we met at a music video dance, to the realm of social media consumption, following people who spend their days creating content for likes and attention.

Way back when in the 2000s, we still used iPods for music and our phones for texts and poor-quality images, which made our skin look surprisingly good. Our parents couldn’t track us using invasive apps, and we got to have a dam good time because of it.

Growing up as adolescents and teenagers in the 2000s, we adopted a wide range of vocabulary from hip-hop songs by 50 Cent and Eminem, and iconic movies like Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, the American Pie movies, and Super Bad. Boys either dressed in oversized t-shirts and bucket hats, or tight-fitting Abercrombie and Fitch. Girls wore belly tops and hoop earrings or collected name-brand clothes from Hollister and American Eagle. Of course, there were also those with choppy dark haircuts, thick eyeliner, and band shirts, wearing the skinniest of skinny jeans.

Whether you fell into the gangsta, preppy, or emo fashions, there were words in your vocabulary that remained a staple in your high school years. Here is a compilation of 10 words from your 2000s high school vocabulary.

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1. Ballin'

I think most of us would give credit to “We Fly High” by Jim Jones for the term “ballin’”. Although it most likely appeared in hip-hop terminology years before the song’s release in 2006, this song comes to mind the clearest when I think of “ballin’”. It’s the word I remember captioned on the MySpace and Facebook profile pictures of guys in oversized hats holding wads of money. It’s a term my group of friends used to use when we called up our bank to find we had more than $20 in our debit account. Ballin’ actually means you have lots of money and money you want to show off and spend.

Here's a pretty blunt definition from Urban Dictionary:

Living a life of extreme wealth and flaunting it. Sadly enough, young people from not-so-wealthy families think it’s cool to blow off thousands of dollars on jewelry and clothes instead of trying to find a better way of life.

Most of the people who claimed to be “ballin’” in high school are far from it these days - hey, myself included… thanks to spending my 20s on travel and entering the 2020s decade with rising inflation.

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2. Dope

Growing up with British parents, we used the word dope to describe someone with a low IQ or a lack of apparent brain cells; kinda like Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs- not an idiot with a malicious character but more like the “bless his heart” kind of stupidity.

Dope in high school had a whole other meaning. It either meant marijuana, or it was used as an adjective to describe something really impressive. “That’s dope” - those were the only two words strung together you needed to give someone a compliment about something they bought or something that happened.

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3. Bird

Ah, the word bird. Bird was one of those word kind of insults you could give or receive without any use of profanity. No one wanted to be called a bird any less than they wanted to be called a tool. A bird was someone who was either unintelligent, unpopular, or a combination of both - and oblivious to it. You wouldn’t really call someone a bird if they didn’t do anything to stand out and deserve the name. It was always someone who tried way too hard to be cool or popular and failed at it. Get called a bird by your school’s elite circle and you’ll have that reputation for the whole four years of high school any time you show up at a party…invited or not.

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4. Bird Course

“Bird course” is one I’ll admit I didn’t really use until university, but I recall it was used for those courses we just needed for easy credit. Getting its name from “bird” as in “idiot”, this moreso pertains to a lack of intelligence rather than a social persona.

Bird courses are notoriously easy. They can be art-related like drama and music, or creative spins on the more academic courses like sports kinesiology, a course popular for jocks and athletes, or social media psychology, which I’ll admit, was a good chunk of my major in university. People take bird courses for an almost guaranteed credit required to graduate on time. In university, they were also conveniently always scheduled at times in the middle of the day or Friday afternoons when waking up early to attend class wasn’t an option (Thursdays become the new Fridays in college).

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5. Snake

Nothing good is ever paired with the symbol of a snake. I can’t tell you a bible story, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, and some kind of lesson… never trust a snake.

In high school, we used the term “snake” to describe the kind of gansta-wannabe guy in an oversized hat and t-shirt that you never want to trust at your small to mid-sized house party. They’re the type to steal, rip you off, and light up a smoke indoors when you already told them not to ahead of time. No one liked a snake, but for some reason, they kept coming around and weaseling their way into the party crowds. These days, I think there are snakes wherever you go in the corporate or social worlds, but they're just people who are out for themselves. You never want to trust a snake with your secrets and they never seem to mind their own business.

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6. Wack

“That is sh*t is wack, yo,” is an expression I recall used frequently in my high school days. The term “wack” referred to something crazy, ludacris, or unreasonable, and almost always in a negative sense. This likely came from the insult of calling a crazy or eccentric person “wacky” or a “wack job”.

“Yo” would commonly be used at the end of the sentence to emphasize just how crazy the point is, while channeling your inner Eminem.

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7. Bro

Now this one might still be around, and it definitely was used in university as well as high school. I remember guys throwing around the saying “bros before hos”, back in the days when they wouldn’t immediately get cancelled and called a misogynist.

“That’s my boy! He’s my bro,” the dudes would say as they posed for their MySpace profile picture with a bottle of Crown Royal they swiped from their parent’s liquor cabinet.

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8. Lit

Is this one still used?

According to Claire Madden (who the h*** is that?) “lit” is at the top of the Gen Z vocabulary. Gross.

While the Gen Zers use “lit” to describe exciting, really awesome, off the chain, bumping, etc, our generation of Millenials used lit to describe intoxicated in some way. Booze, pot, pills, whatever was going on at your high school party of the week, or whatever mix was taken at the latest music festival. I guess “lit” was also used to describe an exciting party where people were getting lit, and not just the latest trends on TikTok.

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9. Chill

This one’s gotta still be around; it’s one of those slang terms that doesn’t really go anywhere, but somehow morphs over decades.

Back in high school, “chill” was used to describe hanging out low-key, unlike “party”, which always involved staying out late and alcohol. “Wanna chill?” “Just chillin’” etc, were used to describe a situation that was relaxed with low expectations.

Now, fast forward to university, and the term “Netflix and chill” was used to describe a date night situation that certainly had more than low-key expectations.

“Chill” was also used as an insulting way to let people know they’re acting like they have a giant stick up their a$$. “CHILL!” was a Oyou never wanted to hear yelled your way; it automatically surfaced anxious thoughts like, “oh no, am I not being chill enough?”. Nowadays most of us would agree that if someone yelled at us to chill out, we probably need to be hanging out with people with a higher intellectual vocabulary.

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10. Let's Bounce

Okay, so it was my long-time friend from high school’s mother who reminded me of this one…

“Let’s BOUNCE!” we’d say as we left the house with our hooded bubble jackets and foundation three times darker and more orange than our skin colour. Out to patrol the streets in the heart of winter…until some guy we’d met twice would pick us up in his Pontiac G6.

Pretty sure we adopted this slang from 50 Cent, The Game or someone they featured on one of their hit songs played at a video dance.

Of course, our whole gangsta-fab vibe was ruined the second after we said “Let’s bounce homies,” and someone’s Mom would shout “Be back by 11!” or “Make good choices!”

On that note, let’s bounce homies.

Hope reading my blog post was pretty dope for a chill night. I know none of y’all bros are getting too lit tonight.

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